Capture the Castle
by teygami
Summary: Flown overseas by the last words of a promise, Sakura finds herself draped and drowning in the luxuries of a cold man's world.  Delirious in his wrought greed, Syaoran finds himself eluded by his most insatiable desire for the girl who won't have him.  RR


_Siblings…_

"Somebody you'll have with you for the rest of your life," Yelan smiled serenely with her tone mocking innocence. _For the rest of your life_… if only he had realized then the pun in her honey draped words.

- - - - [Chapter One

"Hi, my name is Kinomoto Sakura. I hope you will take care of me from now on."

Sakura was a whole head shorter than him with auburn hair falling all around her shoulders as she bowed. His distaste couldn't have drowned him more in his already deepening puddle of sorrows. Perhaps her miniscule size was because she was a distance away underneath the shade of the awning by the door. Here was this girl, his new "half-sister" out of nowhere being all formal like with him. It was mid-afternoon with the heat making waves off in the distance. The cicadas cried wistfully as the silence extended between them. A tumbleweed would've made the perfect entrance at this very moment. Her smile twitched at the corner of her lips but Syaoran just averted his eyes to his glass of iced tea. It glared back at him although a dark green umbrella hung over his head.

An omen?

A calling of misfortune?

'She doesn't even look like she's hit 15 yet,' he ruffled his hair and lost his interest. Though, it would've been fun to mess around with her. 'Can't believe mother lied to me…but it's better this way.'

His mind played on the short memory of yesterday when he had stood beside his mother upon the announcement of a girl arriving from Japan.

She had used the word 'siblings'. In truth the new girl would be adopted into the family as Syaoran's half sister.

"What's her name, mother?" Formalities and sheer coldness were qualities too difficult to let slip away as the heir of the Li Empire. Straightforwardness as well as a demanding nature were also never too far away from the demeanor of any Li.

"Li Sakura. She's a few years younger than you. 2 if I recall." Quick calculations in his head had placed Sakura as 19 with himself being 20 but turning 21 within the week.

Her last words had been, "Don't be afraid to feel, you're only human."

"Excuse me…Li-kun?" Sakura reached out to see if he'd suddenly fallen asleep. As if perhaps he had just been dozing off through out her first appearance in his life but how could she have possibly known? His shades were too dark to tell and he hadn't moved from where he was lounged in the deck chair.

Syaoran tilted his face so that his sunglasses dropped a bit on the bridge of his nose; enough so that he could make proper eye contact with her.

_Moments like these…come too often with you in my life… - Syaoran_

'Wow,' they both thought.

Sakura blushed the hardest shade of cherry and self consciously smoothed the wrinkles in her skirt and pushed back her hair.

"You don't have to stare at me like I'm a freak," she broke eye contact at that moment and watched him warily from her peripherals. He didn't move nor break his stare so she looked down to smother a stubborn crease.

Absent-mindedly she looked down at the reddening of her toes.

'I've been walking a lot today…' she sighed to herself. 'He's such a jerk. I don't even want to be here… he doesn't have to make it so hard for me…'

"Syao-" It happened in a matter of seconds. In two seconds he'd soundlessly gotten up from his chair and had placed himself within inches of her. He had his hands on either side of her on the door behind her and she'd only found out a second later when the chair fell.

Although he'd crossed the long distance in such a short time, his breathing didn't hitch nor was he heaving.

She wasn't so short up close. Sakura stood on the first step of the porch whilst he stood on the ground. At their proximity she stood a little taller than he did with the height of the step.

"Let me tell you something, Sakura," he made sure he had eye contact with her to start. Even if she had tried to look away or turn, there was nowhere to go. Syaoran didn't know if he had the strength to look away. The emeralds had caught him so off guard he hadn't been sure if they were real. His standing there, scaring his new half-sister wasn't something he had intended to do, but maybe _had_ to do just to get close enough to see for himself.

She took his share of breathing as the surprise caught her off guard. Just from the sheer fear of the moment, she'd flushed from the exuberance and could feel the perspiration at the nape of her neck.

"As long as you're here, I'll look at you any way I want to. Despite not being born a Li, you'll be a Li whenever you leave this house. Wherever you go, whatever you do, you're a Li. Don't piss me off with that 'Kinomoto'. You know what being my half-sister means… don't you?"

He moved one arm to smooth the disarrayed strands of hair in front of her eyes so that they rested behind her ears.

His fingers traced ever so lightly into her hair until she could feel his hand pushing her closer to him.

Any closer and she would be able to taste his breath. With each exhale she breathed it felt like he inhaled it all and left nothing for her.

"Are you…expecting something from me?" he pulled back and to Sakura's utter amazement she was leaning towards him so much she could've fallen when he moved. She caught herself against him and blushed.

He smirked and Sakura couldn't have felt more disappointed with herself. 'I'm supposed to hate this guy…' Her breathing was so deep to try and make up for the loss of air.

Sakura kicked herself mentally when his arm was back where it was earlier adjacent to her chest height with bare inches separating them. She should've ran while she had the chance! But her mind had shut down by his stare.

'Why's this happening to me?' she thought looking back down at her feet, it appeared as if they swayed to create two close images of her feet. A pang of blood rushed to her head and her vision whitened to a bright light blinding her. Her mind was so headlight she felt herself growing lighter until it all pitched to a black.

- - - -

"Hey," he watched her half nod. Suddenly, she collapsed against him with his arms keeping her up; otherwise she'd have fallen to the floor. Syaoran tilted his head to look into her face. Her eyes were closed, her cheeks still flushed, and her lips parted into a small "o". He sighed.

Sakura wasn't physically unattractive. Quite the opposite, she was naturally smaller in size but with adequate curves. After all, that's what made a woman. She could pass for a 19 year old up close but any farther and she could easily be mistaken for a much younger girl.

He lowered her to the ground so that he could adjust his hold on her. With one arm supporting her back and the other under knees he lifted her effortlessly. His lower hand reached for the door knob but found it was locked.

'Odd… I swear that's the way she came in here though…' He was in his own house and found it completely unnecessary to carry the key so he had to go to the front and ring the bell for Wei to let them in. _So troublesome…_

He walked across the porch and pushed open the gate at the end. The driveway was reflecting so much heat that he could feel it through his sandals. Where his arms were holding Sakura had started to feel the perspiration going through her clothes so that he could see and feel the frame of her body through her thin sun dress.

A sleek white car was coming up the driveway and Syaoran could've fallen at that moment. What horrible timing that guy had… jeez.

"Syaoran! Yo man, what's up?" Eriol got out of his car and sweat dropped at the sight of an unconscious Sakura in his arms.

"I had no idea you were that type of guy, Syao. Is that how you get the girls? Knew there was something wrong with how they were all clinging to you. Hahaha I'm just joking with you but seriously who's the new girl?"

Syaoran could feel himself unable to regurgitate the words his mother had concluded for him and peered disdainfully into the face of the sleeping beauty.

"She's my fiancée."

"Did she get knocked up on a one night stand?" Eriol couldn't come to any sort of solid conclusion as to why Syaoran was holding this girl so close to him. Plus he hadn't seen her before with Syaoran, nor had he seen her at the university campus.

"You know how we do things, Eriol. Play up and leave nothing. She looks like a little girl anyway and I just met her a few minutes ago," his voice trailed off at the sight of two more girls emerging from Eriol's car. One was a raven haired girl with a displeasured expression on her face and the other was smiling mischievously as she flicked back her head in a laugh.

"Shit…"

"Syaoraaaaaaaaaaan! My favourite cousin," Meiling reached for some bags from the car whilst the other, Tomoyo, gave him the evil eye.

"Another one, Syaoran?" Eriol gave an apologetic look but he too had a tilted half-smile on his face.

At that moment Sakura started to stir from her dark reverie.

"Moe? My head hurts…" she rubbed the tiredness from her eyes and surveyed the area around her. The two familiar faces were staring back at her incredulously.

"NO WAY. SAKURA?"

"Tomoyo, Meiling!" Sakura reached out to hug Tomoyo and almost felt the gravity leaving her.

And oddly enough she ended up closer than before to her new captor.

"Jeez, you idiot. What do you think you're doing?" His heart was beating so fast and Sakura's face was only inches away from his own.

"Why are you yelling at me?" she demanded appalled. Her expression changed with sudden realization and she narrowed her eyes with her finger tapping her chin in thought.

"Don't tell me you were worried I'd fall…" Sakura stated bluntly.

_Doki doki;_

"Can you stand?" Syaoran didn't look at her and instead concentrated at some far off distant point.

"I think so…"

"Good, then get off me," the tone was wrong. Way too harsh than what he'd really meant but what the heck did this girl thing she was doing?

"Ah.. hai sorry…" mumbling, she arose and was instantly hugged by a squealing Tomoyo and Meiling.

"Sakura! I haven't seen you since the academy but that was ages ago! You've grown a bit, I'll have to alter the dress sizes," Tomoyo did a quick run over with her eyes to adjust measurements. "I'm going to have to change the bust for all the dresses." She sighed inadvertently and droned on, "On that dress too…" chii (A/N: HnG reference haha)

"You look smaller if you wear big clothes Sakura. You can't keep being so modest; you're 19 already for goodness sake!" Meiling exchanged nods with Tomoyo.

- - - - [into the Lair

Not necessarily a lair, like that of a gone-mad man lost in the caves but instead a palace of sorts adorned in porcelain, glass, and marble. It was a world so cold that to the touch, she could feel her heart breaking.

"How did I end up like this?" Sakura found herself muttering this for not the first time today.

"Sakura, stop moving or I might accidentally stab you," Tomoyo grumbled with pins between her lips.

Evidently, from her constant shivers, she felt the prick a few times but didn't bleed.

"Done!" holding up the finished dress, Tomoyo proceeded to pack up the thread and scraps.

Sakura laid down on her new bed dressed now in sweat pants and a large t-shirt. _How long will I be here?_ She wondered aimlessly driven to and from that thought mercilessly. Days, weeks, months… years? Possibly an eternity.

The weight shifted on the bed and Sakura felt the warmness of Tomoyo beside her. The warmth was soothing compared to the rest of the empty space in the abyss of room.

"You don't have to be here if you don't want to be." Tomoyo spoke slowly and soothingly like waves lofting against a beach. And there would be Sakura, whatever poor whale or dolphin that happened to swim too close to shore, dwelling into her troubles before the last moment of light.

"I don't have anywhere else to go Tomoyo," Sakura laughed at the absurdity and the cruelty of her words. Home was always a place she could go to; but… "It was my mother's wish for me to be here. To someday marry the arrogant Li Syaoran but I can't be with somebody who doesn't care about me."

"If you know that, you better not expect if from me just because you're my fiancée."

Sakura sat up and frowned upon his figure which leaned upon the door frame, arms crossed and a lucid expression upon his face. It clearly said, "You're just like anybody else."

It wasn't fair to judge him that way or to unfairly interpret the sentiments on his face but it wasn't hard to understand how he felt.

"Don't act like you're the shit. You're just every other girl's man toy," Sakura didn't feel the need to hold back from his stupid behavior. _If mother knew what she'd gotten me into, she'd feel sorry for me too._

"What?" Did he not hear her clearly? It was as if all he had on his mind were money, sex, and girls; in that precise order of importance.

"Any girl who wanted you could have you. Couldn't they? Even if just for one night but they wouldn't care about you. The money, because it has more worth than your lame attitude," she droned her thoughts with no direction whatsoever and concentrated on his reflection which glared at her. A minute passed by and over gradually his anger eased into a lazily plastered smirk. Egotistical in its place she couldn't help but feel a bit surprised he hadn't done something overly aggressive to her. _Thank God Tomoyo's still here…_

Tomoyo had sat up as well and had leaned back against the headboard surveying their epic battle.

"You say that easily but I know you want me," before she could deny it he continued on, "And even if you don't think you want me now… you'll need me. When that time comes you'll see who cares about who or what."

"I'm never going to want or need you, Mr. Li. I could do _so_ much better than some immature money-ridden brat like you."

She got up and walked across the marble floor. The cold seemed to just ride up her ankles to right below her knees where her sweats had been pushed up into capris.

Once she reached him she tiptoed up and placed her arms around his shoulders so that her hands ran through his hair once to meet at the back of his neck.

Her eyes looked glassy and lost like the fervor of all the other girls who'd ever met him.

His smirk widened and suddenly seemed aware. He moved his hands lower down her back and pulled her closer.

She wasn't different at all. She just talked too big for a girl her size. Her attitude was so weird... it was meek one second and the next she was on the prowl. Did she want him or not? He wouldn't wait for her to make up her mind.

Sakura had closed her eyes leaning in closer until at that moment when their lips were about to touch, she turned away so that he had only caught the corner of her lips.

"So close… but," she pushed him away, "too bad." She wiped the corner of her mouth where his had touched hers.

Syaoran must have looked incredulous whilst Tomoyo was holding back a bursting fit.

Sakura just walked with her usual sway ever so silently down those cold marble steps of her new fortress.


End file.
